The mixed fortunes of the deer industry will be under the spotlight with the sector's annual conference opening in the Canterbury town of Methven on Tuesday.
Deer Industry New Zealand chief executive Dan Coup said turning around the languishing venison trade is high on the agenda.
"On the venison side, profitability is pretty much down in the dumps at the moment on the back of schedule prices that are pretty glum. But on the other side of the equation, the velvet industry is actually going along Ok at the moment so, it's a real combination."
"And I'd like to think that we can move away from that kind of cyclical peak and trough for the industry and we've got some strategies in place that are aimed to do that," he said.
Mr Coup said "we'll talk about some plans we have together with the venison marketing companies to contribute to our desire to diversify markets and differentiate our product away from the game season in Europe."
